Jewish Slaves in a ‘Jew-free’ City

The Topography of Jewish Hungarian Forced Labour in Vienna 1944/45

VWI’s intervention ‚Bewegt Erinnern/Moving Remembrance‘ in May 2014 led to the idea of ​​using a website to topographically depict the fate of Hungarian-Jewish forced labour in Vienna in 1944/45. With this website, which initially focused on the former Nazi-Gau Groß-Wien, the individual places of accommodation, care and employment of the forced labourers were (re) localised, documented and described. The website intends to impart and deepen knowledge of the living and working conditions of Hungarian-Jewish forced labourers in order to also advance further research.

The interactive map is the result of  a VWI-project  funded for two years by the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility and Future and was supported in terms of content and organsation by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as well. The research project was advised by a small consortium consisting of Haver, Zachor and the Association of Hungarian History Teachers, Budapest.

Many places, documents, circumstances, stories, photos and objects from this for a long time marginalised episode of the Holocaust have still not been explored and are still waiting to be discovered. A goal of this presentation is – in addition to the intention to snatch this story from the forgotten – also to make these objects, memories and documents visible, to recall the history of forced labour in Vienna.

The project was completed in spring 2018.

In December 2019, the follow-up project Sidetrack Strasshof. Hungarian-Jewish forced labour in the Vienna area (1944/1945) – submitted with the University of Szeged as a project partner – was granted by to the Hungarian National Office for Research, Development and Innovation (NKFIH)  and the Austrian FWF.

Should you be able to contribute in any way to our project, please contact our project team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..